Second Catholic Diocese Allows Illegal Immigrants to Skip Mass

The bishop of the sixth largest Catholic diocese in the U.S. announced Tuesday that he was issuing a dispensation for illegal immigrants from the weekly obligation of attending Sunday Mass over fears of recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, marking the second time a diocese has issued such a dispensation over the last three months.

Bishop Alberto Rojas, the head of the Diocese of San Bernardino east of Los Angeles that serves about 1 million Catholics, stated in the decree that, “All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions, are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation.” Rojas further declared that the dispensation would remain in effect “until further notice or until such time as the circumstances necessitating this decree are sufficiently resolved.”

The decree comes amid the Donald Trump administration’s ongoing stepped-up efforts to deport illegal immigrants, mostly those who have criminal backgrounds. In recent weeks, unverified reports have surfaced claiming that federal agents have entered churches to make arrests, which have been disputed by the Trump administration.

One report noted that two men were taken into custody in the parking lot of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in the San Bernardino Diocese last week. In response to claims that ICE agents entered the church hall, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin stated, “The accusation that ICE entered a church to make an arrest [is] FALSE. ICE conducted a traffic stop on an illegal alien on June 20 in the general proximity of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Montclair, California. The illegal alien chose to pull into the church parking lot. Officers then safely made the arrest.”

In a separate incident that same day, a “longtime parishioner” of the church was also taken into custody by federal agents on the church grounds when no one else was present.

Notably, the San Bernardino bishop’s dispensation from Mass attendance came even though there have been no reports nationwide of federal agents conducting enforcement operations inside churches while services are being conducted.

In May, the Catholic Diocese of Nashville also issued a dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation over immigration enforcement activities, stating that “no Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk.”

Such broad dispensations from Sunday Mass attendance are exceedingly rare in the Catholic Church. The only comparable recent example happened in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when most U.S. dioceses controversially suspended public Mass over fears of the lethality of the virus.

In response to the dispensations, a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson told Axios, “The Catholic Church recognizes that civil authorities have a duty to enforce laws and keep communities safe from violent criminals. However, we also believe that the God-given dignity of each person must be upheld, which includes acknowledging their right to emigrate in search of a better life and to express their religious beliefs openly and without fear.”

Eric Sammons, a Catholic author and commentator, told The Washington Stand that the broad dispensations from Mass attendance are concerning due to their political nature.

“Church history is full of brave souls who faced persecution and even death in order to attend Mass—they understood how important it was to be there each and every Sunday,” he observed. “Yet some of our bishops decided to make a political stunt of the Mass by dispensing from the obligation if someone feared being picked up by ICE (in spite of no evidence that illegal immigrants have been arrested in places of worship). As we saw with their COVID-[19] era shutdowns, too many bishops see Sunday Mass as optional, easily dispensed if in any way inconvenient.”

Originally published by The Washington Stand.

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